1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates specifically to an image processing apparatus and an image processing method which use a pyramid image. The present invention also relates to a program executed by such an image processing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
As described in E. Andelson, et al., “Pyramid methods in image processing”, RCA Engineer, 29(6):22-41, in the related art, an image pyramid is used in image processing.
When actually shooting an image to obtain a shot image of an object to be processed, as the shooting distance between the object and an image shooting apparatus changes, the scale of the object on the image changes, which may present a problem depending on the kind of image processing.
Accordingly, when images hierarchically arranged by scale are used by employing an image pyramid technique, image processing can be performed irrespective of the variations in the scale of an object on an image mentioned above.